


Dialed to an Eleven

by lronspiderr



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter Parker, Original Character(s), Other, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Protective Tony Stark, Spidey Sense (Marvel), Tired Peter Parker, Worried Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-10 09:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20133253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lronspiderr/pseuds/lronspiderr
Summary: May's got a boyfriend, but he's causing problems and soon enough Peter can't take it anymore.For Peter it's a struggle of speaking up. For May it's a struggle of saying enough. For Tony, it's a struggle of finding the right place in Peter's personal life.(Takes place sometime after Spider-Man: Homecoming.)





	Dialed to an Eleven

May had found someone named Derrek, and after getting over having to let someone into their apartment and family, Peter had been fine with it and they were all happy. Until they weren't.

May started working late, but not because they desperately needed money. She wanted to get away from Derrek, and it had the side affect of more money, so it became regular.

She didn't know that Peter was hurting, and he couldn't blame her. She came home near two in the morning, and by then Peter had to pretend to be asleep, so they never talked at night. In the morning, she was gone by eight and Peter was too exhausted to get up to talk to her, especially after his spider bite caused him to need more rest than usual.

They had the weekends together, usually, but Peter was scared to break this weird but safe routine they had. They both avoided Derrek, and tiptoed around the situation every day.

Peter wasn't sure but he figured that May didn't push Derrick away because he gave them some sense of stability. If he left, meals and money would be scarce again, and May would do anything for her nephew even if it hurt her.

Peter would rather starve than have his aunt be unhappy, but it was so hard to speak up about it. It wasn't like Derrick was abusive or manipulative-- he was just a bum, and borderline alcoholic. There was no love for her in his heart anymore, and Peter doubted there had ever been love for him at all.

He tried not to beat himself up about it. He just really missed Uncle Ben.

When Tony showed up, both Peter and Derrick had been home. Derrick had opened the door swiftly and barked out, "Who the hell are you?"

While Tony stood there taken aback and slightly offended, Peter was quick to take over. "He's my teacher! It's fine, he's just here for a late project assignment."

Derrick had said screw it and went to his room to sleep.

Tony stayed there in the doorway and tried to keep a neutral expression. "Grumpy dad?"

Peter looked disgusted. "No, he's- no...You're Tony Stark...Hi. I'm uh, I'm Peter. Peter Parker."

Spider-Man took off, and Peter wasn't home nearly as often as before, and he felt so thankful to Tony for giving him the suit. At least now he wasn't afraid to go out late at night, and now that time previously laying in bed being unable to sleep wasn't wasted.

Or it wasn't usually. Sometimes he felt too tired from the previous night to go out again, which meant he was home with Derrick and wishing that May would show up any second now. Maybe a small part of the kid in Peter worried that May wouldn't come back one day. He knew better than that, but at one a.m. staring out the window with sleep deprivation, his thoughts got loopy and lost its filter.

After fighting Toomes and having to give up the suit, Peter felt utterly hopeless. He felt angry too, angry at Tony for taking away that bit of hope and security, but he knew he couldn't blame Tony when Tony didn't know. Regardless, it still hurt.

Eventually he got the suit back. It didn't make things better, though.

He was going to talk to May about it, finally. However, the night before he was supposed to, things became too much for him.

His spidey senses had dialed to an eleven and stopped there, but they were more sensitive some days than others, usually affected by his mood or how much sleep he had gotten. Therefore, lately everything was more sensitive than usual. They weren't dialed up, but they took more presence in his mind than usual.

The night before he planned on talking to May, Derrick had been doing what he usually did. However, it was too much this time.

The thud of the refrigerator door being shut, the crisp noise of a beer can being opened, the shuffling and thudding of feet against wood floors, the unnecessary grunt as he collapsed onto the couch, and the ever present TV volume on 20 despite it being almost two in the morning.

It was bad enough, but Derrick had an average of 3-6 beers every night, which meant that the process repeated that many times.

Peter had his bedroom door shut, but he still heard everything through the thin walls. It was too much, he was stressed and exhausted and nearly depressed, and everything about Derrick screamed 'annoying'.

He usually just bore through it with music blasting in his earbuds, but even then he could hear the stupid beer cans over the beat or the TV commercials over the lyrics. He was pretty sure he had broken his earbuds by now, with how loud he hard turned the music up. No doubt his ears suffered too.

This night, the earbuds were useless. Peter felt almost pathetic at how easily he got frustrated-- tears stinging his eyes as they threatened to form, and his fingers curled into his hair ready to rip tufts out. He couldn't help it, there was just so much frustration and hatred towards the noises.

He broke that night, let out a strangled scream into his pillow and yelled "Just shut up!!"

Before Derrick could be bothered to get up and scold him, Peter was out his window hurrying down the fire escape stairs. He was trying to see through forming tears, while also putting his web shooters on.

By the time Peter's room light turned on, Peter was long gone.

He was swinging across Queens with tears streaming down his cheeks as the situation utterly overwhelmed him. He was not okay, May was not okay, they were not okay. They were sharing their home and life with someone they didn't love and with someone who didn't love them.

Peter missed his uncle, and his father. It had been a long time since that had been so prevalent, but it was now and it was burning into him.

He slipped up a few times, nearly losing his footing on rooftops or almost crashing onto the streets below when he flicked out a web a few seconds later than anticipated.

He had managed to get quite far, on adrenaline alone, and paused on the very outskirts of the city to put his suit on. He hadn't had time to put it on before he left, and now the night cold was getting to him, so he slipped it on over his boxers and t-shirt.

Karen flipped the heater on without him even asking, and he smiled as he sat down in a tree. Her greeting was just so comforting, it was refreshing.

He knew he needed to call May, because Derrick would be decent enough to tell her when her nephew was missing, but he couldn't bring himself to call her then.

"It's late," Karen noted, hinting at something.

Peter nodded. "...I wanted to get away."

"Away?"

"From home. Just-- far from home. As far as possible." He turned his body to lean his back against the tree, and let his one leg dangle over the side of the branch he sat on.

"Well technically, the farthest location from your apartment is-"

Peter chuckled, and reached his hands under his mask to wipe his tears away.

"I'm sorry you feel unwell, Peter. Should I contact Ned?"

He shook his head. Ned didn't know-- no one knew. Plus Ned was asleep, and rightfully so.

"I'm worried about you, your stress levels are quite high, and you're fatigued. I have to let someone know."

Peter saw it as a betrayal but couldn't be mad at her for more than a few seconds. "Don't call May, please. I'll- I'll tell her tomorrow." He would tell her like he had planned to before, screw Derrick for almost altering that decision.

"Then the only viable option is Happy, and Tony Stark."

\- - -

Peter swung out as far as he could, and Happy met him the rest of the way. The Avengers compound, which Tony currently lived at, was hours away and Peter couldn't swing throughout all of upstate New York.

Happy was clearly concerned, and a little pissed off, to be picking him up at almost four in the morning. He had made Peter wait a while with the hour drive (he had sped down the highway as quickly as he was comfortable with), so he first just made sure that Peter was okay.

"'m fine," Peter assured him.

The heaters in the car paired with the heater in his suit was nearly intoxicating, and coupled with the plush leather interior, Peter was soon passed out across the back seats.

He wasn't happy to be woken up about an hour later by someone nudging him and with bright lights shining down on him. He grimaced and turned his head away, and a voice close to him said something. The lights got dimmed down, and after another shake, Peter gave up trying to sleep again.

He peeked an eye open, then opened both and looked around. He was in a chair by the door of the compound with Happy standing off to the side, and a tired-looking Tony was squatting in front of him, gazing up at him with an unreadable expression.

"...Hi, sir."

Tony's lip twitched. "Hey, kid. So I heard you're feeling unwell."

Peter looked away. He nodded first, not trusting his voice, but then managed to speak when he caught Happy giving him a look of encouragement. He looked back to Tony, "I uh, Karen could probably explain it better, um- I'm just tired, like really tired, but I can't sleep at night so..."

"Do you know why you can't?" Tony asked. He had kept his expression and voice un-wavered, but the act was beginning to slip. There was a flicker of worry in his eyes.

Peter knew why he couldn't sleep; he didn't know if he wanted to say it, but Tony would only prod for answers and there was no way to go around it. "It's Derrick," he started. When Tony looked confused, he held back a sigh of frustration and explained, "May's boyfriend."

Tony became animated at that. He set a hand on Peter's wrist and looked at him with pure concern. "Did he do something?" He kept the question vague, not wanting to ask anything specific just yet.

"No. Well, yes but-" Peter stopped himself. When he went to explain it, he realized how silly it sounded. Could Tony even understand something like that? Would Peter just sound crazy?

"Tell me," Tony ordered.

"It's nothing, like, bad." Peter felt frustration prickling his skin again, and told himself there was no way he was going to cry in front of Tony Stark-- again. He had felt this frustration before after the Toomes ordeal, but this was worse because it seemed there was no solution for it.

Peter cleared his throat and blinked back tears. "So you know how I said that my senses are dialed to an eleven?"

Tony nodded slowly and tried to understand where this was heading.

"Right, well...I don't know, a big part of it is that I can hear things from far away, so when they're close it's really bad. Um, Derrick stays up really late, and I just hear him throughout the apartment and it just- it gets on my nerves? Because he watches the TV super loud even when I suggest that he turn it down at night, and- it's really stupid but- the walls are thin and- I can't sleep even if I play music, I've tried so many things but- the stupid beer cans opening are so annoying I-"

His hands were tangled in his hair, pulling gently at his curls. Peter untangled his fingers and held his hands by his sides to stop himself from doing it again. Then a tear spilled over, and he was looking at Tony through a blur. "I'm exhausted," he mumbled, and the tears burst through.

"...May took up shifts just to avoid him, a-and no one is happy, and he never even c-cared in the first place, but if he leaves t-there's no money, and she'll be alone again. A-And he's just there to be there. It's driving me crazy."

Peter reached up and wiped his tears away, but they didn't stop and it felt useless so he crossed his arms instead. He could feel that his face was red and puffy, as it always did when he cried to this degree. It made him feel a little numb too, after each good cry.

Happy offered to get Peter a glass of water and left the room. Peter looked over in time to see Happy with a sympathetic expression before he left.

It was a lot to take in. Tony of course dwelt on how he hadn't seen the signs when he first met Derrick, but he couldn't beat himself up too much about it, and in the end it hadn't been his business until just now-- when Peter told him and let it be his.

As for the dialed up senses, Tony thought he would never know unless he experienced it himself, but with this he had a better look into it, and he stowed away in his mind at least ten ideas for Peter's suit as well as special earbuds he could make for him.

"You didn't tell Aunt May how you felt?"

"I was going to tomorrow, I swear...Er, later today." He glanced wearily at the clock on the wall.

Tony was proud of Peter for trying to do something about it. Although, Tony had the feeling it was time to pitch in as the really-involved-mentor dynamic that he was with the kid.

He thought about it for a few minutes longer, then patted Peter's knee and stood up. "There's a guest bedroom upstairs just around the corner."

Happy came back and handed Peter the glass of water. Peter gladly accepted it and downed it in two seconds. He felt them stare, but Happy took the glass back without saying anything.

Tony led the way to the stairs, and Peter had no choice but to follow. "What are you going to do?" He asked. He knew Tony wouldn't send him back home without doing something.

"I'll go with you and talk to Aunt May."

The room was to the very left of the stairs. Tony opened the door and pushed it open. He watched Peter walk in and look around, and after Peter didn't protest he said, "Get some sleep, alright? If there's any noises bothering you, let me know. I mean it."

Peter nodded. "Okay, thank you, sir." He sat down on the bed and bit his lip as he looked at him. "...Are you, like, mad at me?"

Tony sighed. "I'm mad you didn't tell me sooner."

Peter looked down at the carpeted floor, and half-heartedly shrugged. "It just seemed odd, and I had done fine dealing with it before, but- yeah."

"You can tell me anything," Tony reminded him. When Peter remained silent, he knew it was time to finally let Peter sleep. He grabbed the handle, "Goodnight kiddo", and shut the door.

Tony somehow managed to make special earbuds in a little under six hours from scratch and with having no prior knowledge.

They then headed to Queens and took May out for lunch, and Peter got the chance to tell her how he had been feeling. Tony had kept his distance to let them speak, and acted like his salad was the most interesting thing in the world for a whole twenty minutes.

On the ride to their apartment he offered them a place to stay for a week or so, but May was adamant on kicking Derrick out right then and there. While she went up and did that, Peter stayed out in the parking lot and took his time saying goodbye to Tony and Happy.

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't mention it-"

"I shouldn't bother you with family stuff like this. And you really didn't need to make these earbuds for me, by the way. But, uh, thanks for them. Thanks for everything."

Tony peered at him from inside the car, then opened the door and stepped out. It didn't feel right to have the kid talking from outside his window, like last time. It reminded him of Harley Keener too, suddenly. It wasn't like Tony was leaving Peter, but 'thanks for everything' awfully sounded like it.

He reached out and patted Peter on the shoulder. "I know I don't exactly say this, but whenever you need something, you can tell me. I'm, y'know, I'm here for you."

Derrick came out with no belongings but his jacket and car keys. He spotted Tony and sent him a confused glare before hopping in his car and speeding away.

They watched him leave, then looked back to each other. Peter held the box with the earbuds tightly and pointed at the apartment complex. "I should go check on May."

Tony nodded. "See you around."

"Yeah, see you." Peter hesitated, then turned and hurried up the steps to his apartment.

May was packing up the few things that were Derrick's when he came in. When he stood hesitantly in the doorway, she dropped the item in her hand into the box and crossed the floor, hugging Peter tightly and running a hand through his hair.

Peter hugged her back, setting his head on her shoulder. He could hear her heart beating, something calming that tethered him down. It was just that, and the quiet apartment, and it was so blissful.

"We won't ever go through that again, honey." She smoothed his hair down. "I promise. I love you, so much."

Peter smiled. "I love you too."

He felt like he could tell her anything that dwelt in his mind, now.


End file.
